Mental Health Resources
In 2017, The Missouri Foundation for Health granted the Springfield-Greene County Public Health Department $252,500 to conduct a comprehensive mental health and addiction assessment. In April of 2019, the Springfield-Greene County Public Health Department released the results of the 15 month long project. As reported by the Springfield News-Leader “primary data was collected directly from mental health and healthcare service providers or other stakeholders and offered an in-depth understanding of mental health and substance abuse specific to the demand in the community on the local system. Service use data was collected from partners Burrell Behavioral Health, CoxHealth, Jordan Valley Community Health Center, and Mercy Springfield.”
The results of the study are sobering. The survey reported 35.4 percent of outpatient diagnoses were anxiety or stress-related. Respondents reported that 29.1 percent of outpatient diagnosis included Major Depressive Disorder or, more simply, Depression. Greene County’s suicide rate (23/100,000) is nearly twice the national average (13.4/100,000). To no one’s surprise, vulnerable populations like children, the homeless, and veterans experienced these disproportionately. Additionally, the study also revealed that Greene County men had a suicide rate over 200 times higher than women.
In response to these findings, the Springfield-Greene County Health Department and the Community Partnership of the Ozarks have launched an awareness campaign so that many of these problems can be addressed early. By connecting people to services like counseling, therapy, and support groups early, it is hoped that many situations can be deescalated and stabilized before they worsen. Ideally, the community can shift away from a system where people worsen until they fall into a cycle of incarceration and emergency medical interventions and into system that catches people before they fall. To support this effort, the Springfield-Greene County Health Department has compiled a comprehensive list of services available to the citizens of Greene County.
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